The three federal inmates suspected of attacking a militia leader in a New Mexico jail in April were in custody on immigration charges and had all been previously deported prior, according to a local report about federal documents that were released Wednesday.
The documents show Roberto Gardea-Limas, Silvano Gurrola-Hernandez, and Martin Soto-Ortega had each been previously deported from the United States and had been in custody at the Doña Ana County Detention Center in late April on varying federal charges, according to Las Cruces Sun News.
Larry Mitchell Hopkins, the leader of the United Constitutional Patriots, was beaten while being held in a general population area of the center April 22. The 69-year-old, who goes by Johnny Horton, Jr., was indicted in April for being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition in November 2017.
Hopkins attracted national attention earlier this spring as the organizer of a citizens group attempting to arrest migrants who illegally crossed the southern border, which his lawyer, Kelly O’Connell, said might have made him a target in jail because of his targeting of asylum seekers and migrants.
Video of the incident shows Hopkins being attacked while laying against a wall in an open area.
Gurrola-Hernandez, a 43-year-old Mexican citizen, was arrested last November on a drug paraphernalia possession charge, released, then arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in February after he did not show in court. He was last deported in 2007.
Soto-Ortega is a 22-year-old from Mexico who was arrested in March with four other people who were carrying 185 pounds of marijuana through the southern New Mexico desert. He was also previously returned to Mexico.
Gardea-Limas, 54, was deported in 2005 and was in custody after being arrested at a Border Patrol interstate checkpoint in Texas earlier year. His nationality was not specified in the Las Cruces Sun News report.
The three men are not facing charges in connection to the attack, but a detention center spokesperson named the three suspects as responsible for it. Because the suspects are federal inmates, federal authorities are the only ones who can submit criminal charges.
Hopkins was transferred out of the facility while his case proceeds in Albuquerque.
